After the final notes were played by Paul McCartney the San Francisco crowd went wild and Paul did a stand up job of bidding Candlestick Park a grand farewell. Through the fireworks, confetti canons, and 49,000 fans screaming, Paul addresses the last audience to ever attend an event at Candlestick,

“Hey San Francisco, THANK YOU!”

After he gets the crowds attention, he says, somewhat nonchalantly, “Candlestick you were cool all along. You were cool tonight, you were cool back then, we love ya! Good bye Candlestick Park!”

As the crowd continues to roar he finally bids them good-bye, “Hey listen folks, I’ll tell you what though, we’ll see ya next time.” Watch the video above to see Paul McCartney and all the fans final moments at Candlestick!

During the final moments above Paul uses the term “…you were cool back then…”, referring to the Beatles’ final live concert which took place on August 29, 1966 at Candlestick Park. This would eventually become the Beatles’ last concert appearance ever. It was a 33-minute performance at Candlestick on a Monday. At the time, the Park’s capacity was 42,500 but the Beatles only filled 25,000 seats, leaving many full sections of the seating completely unsold.

Beatles Poster – Last Concert at Candlestick Park San Francisco

The promoter of their last concert was Tempo Productions, it was owned by Bobby Mitchell and Tom Donohue (aka “Big Daddy”), who were both popular KYA radio disc jockeys. The story goes like this – In the summer of 1965 the two had received a verbal agreement to promote the Beatles’ 1965 Cow Palace shows (there were two of them). Unfortunately the contract ended up going to a San Jose promoter named Paul Cattallano. Tempo immediately took legal action against the Beatles for breach of contract, serving them a summons via a process server at the Hollywood Bowl just one day before the Cow Palace Shows. The Beatles and Tempo’s lawyers eventually cut a deal that worked between both parties. Tempo gained the rights to promote the group’s return engagement at Candlestick Park in 1966, which became the lasts live concert by the Beatles ever.

The Beatles received 65% of the gross ticket sales, the city of San Francisco received 15% and 50 free tickets.

The oversize tickets were too large to fit in the counting machines at Candlestick, they had to be counted by hand.

The performance was taped by Tony Barrow (Beatles Press Agent) at Paul McCartney’s request and is available at various locations in a bootleged format. The last song was truncated because the recorder ran out of tape.

Just before leaving the stage, John Lennon teasingly strummed the opening guitar notes of “In My Life”.

Wes Wilson designed the concert poster for the show. Wes later on became one of the most influential artists of the psychedelic movement and designed many important posters for Bill Graham.

The actual last ‘concert’ in the world by the Beatles was on January 30, 1969 when they had a ‘rooftop performance’ atop the Apple Records Studio in London. They sang for 42 minutes before being chased off by the police who responded to neighbors’ complaints.

Shades of the Bill Graham era of Day on the Greens and major Rock’n’Roll shows, I was pleased to see a very well behaved crowd and extremely impeccable orchestration of the concert and overall event. My hats off to APE (Another Planet Entertainment) Concerts for pulling this off in the true style of a Bill Graham Presents show. The extraordinary fireworks show during and after concert, to the memorabilia handout after the show. Founders of APE Concerts are former employees and an extension of the Concert Promoter’s legacy.

CANDLESTICK PARK – A LEGENDARY VENUE

Gusty, foggy and cold are three words that define Candlestick Park. Built for what was to become a new Baseball Franchise for San Francisco, the “San Francisco Giants”. The Giants franchise began in New York City where it was established in the early years of baseball 1883. They played at four different ballparks only known as the Polo Grounds. By the 1950s the Giants franchise was fed up with an aging ballpark and began looking to relocate. Across the country in San Francisco they found a whole lot of happy voters willing to approve a $5 million bond for construction of a new stadium. In Summer 1957, majority owner of the Giants, Horace Stoneman, announced that the club would move to San Francisco. An amazing thing happened to baseball in California that year, not only were the Giants moving to California, but the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles as well.

The Giants made their debut in the City of San Francisco in 1958. Even though funding was approved for construction, it had not yet been built by the time the Giants moved to the city. For two seasons the Giants played at Seals Stadium, a 23,000 seat minor league ballpark. There were two possible locations for the new stadium, downtown and at Candlestick Point. Candlestick Park site was purchased at a cost of $2.7 million, the city already owned an adjoining 31 acres. Construction began in August 1958. The stadium project was engulfed in controversy as it was constructed which amounted to many delays, the Giants had hoped to open the ballpark in September 1959 but these delays pushed the opening to the following season.

Named after its location, the San Francisco Giants played their first game at Candlestick Park on April 12, 1960 against the St. Louis Cardinals. The seating capacity of Candlestick was 42,553 the grandstand consisted of two main seating decks. The original dimensions of the stadium were 330 ft. (left), 420f ft. (center), and 335 ft. (right). You can see much more information at the Ball Parks of Baseball website.

For a full 38 seasons, Giant fans came out to “the Stick” as it was known, to see players such as Bobby Bonds and then son Barry Bonds, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, and Willie Mays play and astound the crowd.

How about them Niners?!! Almost 43 years since the San Francisco 49ers played their first game at Candlestick Park they will debut at their new home, Levi Stadium in Santa Clara. The 49ers lost to the Los Angeles Rams, 20-13, in their first game played at The ‘Stick. The weather was a gloomy 53-degree with an afternoon 16 mph wind. The team won five of their eight home games in this inaugural season, the team coached by Dick Nolan advanced to the postseason in ’71 and ’72.

San Francisco 49ers Team Photo – Season 1 at Candlestick Park

Candlestick, in all its glory and frigidness will be missed by many.

Please enjoy the actual raw video footage above of the final moments of the last event ever at Candlestick Park performed by Paul McCarthy who we all know was 1/4 of the Beatles!